Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

“My task here is to continue on the path that I believe is not only important for America, but important for lasting peace in the world,” Obama said. His goals include stabilizing Afghanistan, mobilizing an international effort to deal with terrorism and combating climate change.

At a brief address on the front lawn of the White House this morning, President Obama accepted the award of the Nobel Peace Prize “as a call to action—a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.” Does President Obama deserve this award now? This is perhaps the first question that comes to mind upon hearing the news. Even President Obama judges himself undeserving “to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize.”

Given what seems to be his life purpose, I believe he is deserving. However, there is still time needed to assess his actual achievements towards peace. Two obvious, top-of-mind areas of long-needed “peaceful” progress are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the outcomes of these conflicts are tenuous and mired in complexity, we are in the middle of creating this history. Ultimately, time will judge how deserving President Obama is of today’s honor.

I have complete faith that Obama’s genuine intentions lead him to work for cooperation and best possible outcomes among a diversity of world views and motivations (which ultimately equates to peace). Can he effectively activate these good and genuine intentions? Can he successfully achieve the cooperation the world needs for peaceful outcomes?

These are questions that will be answered not only by the actions of our president, but also by the actions of leaders of other nations around the world. Cooperation does not come from one source; it is co-operative, necessitating genuine intentions for the best possible outcomes among a diversity of world views from the very holders of those world views.

As reflected in his speech this morning, he is fully aware that, “These challenges can’t be met by any one leader or any one nation.” So, in the end, how will we judge how deserving or not President Obama is? This reminds me that the success of any one of us is not based solely on our own efforts. We need a certain amount of cooperation for any success at all.

Beautiful! WhiteHouse.gov just launched a new site called Reality Check. Here’s where the Obama Administration tries to lay it all out in video and text. Here’s where they make a stab at answering the myriad questions we all have about what the trendy phrase “health insurance reform” actually means, debunking myths and rumors.

If you have a question or a myth that you’d like addressed, pop open the contact form and ask away. You can identify yourself or remain anonymous. The only identity requirement is an email address, which you could create for just this one communication.

HealthReform.gov is a related site that’s been up for a while now. Here, the many different facets of the larger health reform challenge are examined and shared. The site includes examples of state and community health systems that are successful in terms of efficiency and economy — examples to be learned from. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services presents weekly video updates sharing where we are on the map of progress in a generalized summary statement.

Between these two sites, we have the opportunity to gain a real understanding of the challenges, issues, conflicts, dilemmas, and possible solutions of a system that itself is terminally ill. Change is imminent. It must occur. We cannot carry on the way we are now. The cost of health care must be reduced, education for self-care and prevention must be increased, the option to receive care must be available to all Americans, and this can only happen via improved efficiencies.

Don’t give up on the idea that we can have a better health care system. Let’s look at what compromises each side of the debate can make while still not compromising the larger value of a reliable health care system from which everyone — every single American citizen — can benefit. Let’s do what’s necessary to move our country forward.

Setting the Record Straight (launched 08/19/09)
“Where we do disagree, let’s disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that’s actually been proposed.” -President Obama

What an exciting, historic success! Sonia Sotomayor is well on her way to taking her place on our country’s highest court as the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. With the Senate Judiciary Committee voting 13 to 6 in her favor, the expected outcome for next week’s full Senate vote is confirmation.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was the only Republican to vote today with the Democratic majority for Sotomayor. Who would have imagined? In reaction to the vote, he even went so far as to say, “America has changed for the better with her selection.”

Senator Graham, your choice and standout action to vote against the rest of your party reinforces hope that we are closer to the day when our leaders and representatives are playing less of the politics game and making decisions based more on America’s best interest. Thank you, Sir.

Once again, we see progress with the Obama Administration. In the area of foreign policy, today was a monumental day. In the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue was opened with its inaugural session.

In an op-ed piece published by the Wall Street Journal, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner explain the objectives of this historical dialogue. The collaborative connection between China and the U.S. is highlighted and emphasized as a significant venture for the global economy and the future of our world.

In a nutshell, there are three main modules of the larger area objectives:

Progress with the inseparable challenges of climate change, energy, and the environment

Achievement of globally favorable practices in the face of security and development challenges

Although this is an official dialogue opened between the U.S. and China, other nations will need to be engaged as these two work to discover viable solutions. Secretary Clinton and Secretary Geithner write, “few global problems can be solved by the U.S. or China alone. And few can be solved without the U.S. and China together.”

It will be interesting to watch the dialogue develop and unfold. How will these two nations work together? How will their coming together influence the rest of the world’s nations to unify toward global goals? Can we be as encouraged as to hope that human rights will be one of the details under “globally favorable practices in the face of security and development challenges”?

I take encouragement from a front-page article from China Daily. Despite the downplay by foreign press and various “experts,” some in China are seeing the dialogue as an important achievement.

I am optimistic for a progressive turn of events. There is light dawning at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Thank you, President Obama for carrying the torch.

We can only hope that the incentives of “Race to the Top” will compellingly inspire real change in school districts across America. But how badly are states individually interested in gaining this funding opportunity? And what checks are in place to ensure that the achieved funds will be used effectively?

The four areas “Race to the Top” targets are:

The adoption of rigorous standards and assessments

The recruitment and retention of high quality teachers

A significant turnaround for low-performance schools

The establishment of data systems to track student achievement and teacher effectiveness

School districts and states need to be creative, innovative, and very realistic when addressing these four areas. The idea behind “Race to the Top” is magnificent in its natural use of competition to create best, most effective practices. Competition works this way in the business world. Can the competitive arena do the same for our failing schools?

The national spotlight now shines on state districts, and winners win for the whole state. This is huge, and hugely important.

Extraordinary examples of how improvements are already being made do exist. Most of the time, these scarce examples fly under the radar, but in Soledad O’Brien’s series Black in America produced and run on CNN, an shining example of success stands out. Steve Perry of Hartford, Connecticut is having a significant influence on kids in his community with his Capital Preparatory Magnet School. His approach is all about the details. In his opinion, it is the details that result in a better, brighter big picture.

The success of Capital Prep is in stark contrast to what is happening at most of America’s schools. Many school districts are having to cutback on educational support, and even the kids are noticing. For example, at a school in San Jose, California a student is concerned about the number of students he’ll have in his classroom next year.

I am hopeful that all governors, school boards, principals and teachers, and anyone else who can constructively get involved with public school improvements will look at what Steve Perry and other’s successful models have achieved. If we have good ideas, let’s submit them to representatives on local school boards and our local government. Now is the time for brainstorming all the possibilities. Our kids, our economy, and our future as a global contributor and competitor demand it.

I vote “Yes” for Sonia Sotomayor! Listening to her responses during the questioning process of her hearing, I was impressed by the way Sotomayor remained calm and thoughtful, collected and deliberate no matter how ridiculous or heated the questions and remarks of the various senators became. This woman is a consistent thinker and is very clear about the difference between the rule of law (the stick by which every judicial decision must be measured) and her personal preferences and opinions.

Aren’t these traits exactly what we want in a Supreme Court Justice? A person who is publicly aware (by self-declaration) of her biases and the contrast between those and the rule of law — how perfect! Her track record of case decisions reflects a clear difference between her rulings and her biases, specifically in cases involving race discrimination.

Despite this clarity, there are some who are still clinging to and expressing concerns about her personal preferences regarding race and immigration policies. Out of a endless list of cases, there is only one case in which Sotomayor ruled against the white plaintiff in a racial discrimination case. Her ruling, which was unanimously shared by the two other judges on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, was in line with and supported by federal law. Sotomayor ruled by following the law, not by following her personal preferences.

The fact that the GOP continues to gin up concern about her personal biases is just silly politics as usual. Her personal preferences are really not the issue here. How does she perform as a judge? That’s the question. The answer is perfectly satisfactory: she follows the rule of law without prejudice.